Ethan Dodd – Visual Artist. Cardiff, Wales

November 25, 2013

Documentation; 25/11/13

On friday I took part within a drawing workshop, as per usual, and ended up creating a series of ink and pencil drawings that were highly experimental, and made a nice change from my usual, heavily alchemical works.

At first I stayed within the realms of reality, sketching the plants with a simple black charcoal pencil, attempting to create something that would inspire me to become more experimental with my work; what I got was something that I was really not proud of…until I began to utilise a diluted ink within the work. Painting with my hands, I began to paint the vines and other leaves that were upon the cheese plant, and began to create something that really fascinated me; echoing the works I used to create last year, which were expressive understandings of the world we inhabit, and reminding me of the original need for myself to craft art; in order to showcase how I perceived the world to others.

The next drawing I crafted utilised a technique I had used before, but wanted to explore again; a combination of ink and Pva glue, which crafts a semi-translucent material on the canvas. It also was a throwback to my extremely expressive drawings of years ago, as well as a form of expression crafted within the other drawing of the pot. Once again, I experimented with the diluted ink, and began to paint with my nails, rather than my fingertips; producing a very interesting ‘growth’ effect.

The final drawing from the class is delicate and fragile, it does not seem like something I would do and yet has my own distinct style within its linework. Painting with my nails again in a shakey, careful manner, I was able to create something that has an ethereal aspect to it; as if it is a shadow or imprint of the image of the plant. This is reinforced by the use of transparent plastic to craft the leaves, which reflects the light ever so slightly, and therefore enhancing the ‘shadow’ image.

I will endeavour to paint like this in the future; the connotations of growth and shadows are very interesting.

This ‘Ethereal’ nature has extended into my thought processes within my Time project, in the sense of the creation of a ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ (of course, it would not have the properties of the philosopher’s stone, merely it would look like it, which is something that I can imagine being quite hard to craft). I have thought about utilising resins but as my assessment is next week, it would be an issue to get a hold of them and experiment, as well as craft a piece with them in such a short time; however, I may order some just to experiment.

The other idea I have is utilising an acrylic medium to craft it, which I would mix with purples and reds in order to craft the mythical ultimatum of the ‘Rubedo’ stage of the Magnum opus. I intend to craft something like the image above, emblazoned with a powerful crimson, echoing the power and mythical aspects of the philosopher’s stone.